(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a furnace blower apparatus having a blower housing with a removable panel to which a fan assembly is mounted. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a furnace blower apparatus having a tubular housing that is connected between a furnace and an exhaust flue of the furnace. The housing has an interior bore containing a fan assembly for drawing air through the furnace burner chamber on operation of the fan assembly. The housing includes a panel that is removably mounted to a side wall of the housing. The fan assembly is mounted to an interior surface of the panel. The panel is held to the housing by a pair of lips on the panel that engage against the interior and exterior surfaces of the housing, whereby the fan assembly can be removed from the interior of the housing by removing the panel from the housing.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A typical heating furnace that is used in heating the interior of a home or other similar dwelling structure basically comprises an enclosure containing a combustion burner, a combustion burner blower, a heat exchanger, and a heat exchanger blower. The combustion burner blower is operative to draw ambient air into the combustion burner where it is mixed with a fuel, for example gas, as the fuel is burned. The combustion burner blower also draws the exhaust byproducts of combustion from the combustion burner and directs the exhaust to an exhaust flue connected with the furnace.
The combustion of the combustion burner heats the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger blower draws ambient air through the heat exchanger where the ambient air is heated by the combustion burner. The heat exchanger blower then directs the heated air into the interior environment of the dwelling, heating the interior environment.
The typical construction of a residential furnace described above usually requires a substantial area in the residential dwelling. The area required by the furnace not only must be large enough to accommodate the furnace, but also must be slightly larger in order to enable a free flow of ambient air into the furnace enclosure to provide air for combustion and air to be heated by the furnace. The larger the dwelling being heated by the furnace, the larger furnace construction must be.
Smaller dwellings, for example manufactured homes or mobile homes, typically do not require a larger furnace construction to provide heat to the interior of the dwelling. Furnaces for smaller dwellings have been designed with a much more compact construction. For example, the combustion burner blower has been designed where a fan assembly that draws air through the combustion burner is contained inside a tubular housing that also functions as part of the exhaust flue. This results in a reduction in the overall size of the furnace, because additional space in the furnace enclosure is not required for a combustion burner blower that is a separate component part from the combustion burner and from the exhaust flue of the furnace.
However, compact furnace constructions such as that described above have drawbacks that are attributed to their compact size. For example, in the compact furnace assembly comprising the fan assembly mounted in the tubular housing that communicates the furnace burner with the exhaust flue, it is necessary to disassemble the tubular housing from its position between the furnace enclosure and the exhaust flue to service or replace the fan assembly. Thus, repair of this type of furnace assembly is time-consuming and difficult.
What is needed to overcome the disadvantages associated with compact furnace constructions is a furnace blower apparatus specifically designed for compact furnace constructions where the fan assembly of the apparatus is easily accessed for servicing of the fan assembly.